Two Million Chinese Have Died in Kansu

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6850, 4 March 1929, Page 7

Two Million Chinese Have Died in Kansu

FAMINE, WAR and MASSACRE Country Stripped of Every Form of Vegetation Australian Press A.ssn. —United Service. Received Sunday, 7 p.m. SHANGHAI, March 2. Over two million people, almost a quarter of the population of Kansu province (Western China) have perished as the result of famine, war ravages and Moslem massacres in less than a year, according to latest reports from the grief-stricken areas. True conditions within the province are difficult to obtain. Communications are almost severed, investigators fearing to venture, lest their food supplies be filched by the populace. Half dead victims, who have succeeded in reaching neighbouring provinces, relate tales of appalling suffering. Experts estimate .it will require £8,000,000 worth of grain seed to save the remaining inhabitants from certain death, apart from immediate goed supplies, to prevent the seed being eaten. The country is strippled absolutely bare of vegetation and trees for hundreds of miles. The starving population has com- , menced consuming earth, the majority dying quickly. Grave fears are held of a plague outbreak, yet the neighbouring provinces refuse to delete their own meagre stocks by aiding the sufferers.